Musk vs. Buffett: Round 1

"They're going at it again," a colleague muttered, breaking the morning silence.

The sun hadn't even peeked over the horizon this morning before the first battle of the day began. He didn't have to elaborate; I knew where this conversation was headed.

He was, of course, referring to the feud developing between two powerful billionaires.

I talked last week about Warren Buffett's strategic move into the lithium revolution. Look, you don't amass a personal wealth in excess of $80 billion without some power of foresight in the market.

He had the formula right.

You see something nobody else does, then get in early, and sit back and smile as the latecomers drive your shares higher.

Makes sense, doesn't it?

The problem, however, is when other sharks start circling.

"You put the two biggest bullies in the same classroom, you're going to get a fight," I told him. "And the greedier they get, the more money will line your pockets."

And the last thing Buffett wants is competition right now.

Unfortunately, he's got an all-out lithium war on his hands.

Musk's WAR!

Never forget that at the heart of the lithium revolution is a powerful demand story.

It was Elon Musk himself who told us, "In order to produce half a million cars a year... we would basically need to absorb the entire world's lithium-ion production."

I want you to think about that for a minute...

If Musk follows through on his promise to churn out 500,000 electric vehicles per year, just imagine how intense the fight will be for future lithium supply.

I reminded my readers last week that back in July, Musk's production target was 20,000 vehicles per month by December.

Now Tesla's head honcho believes they'll be pumping out 10,000 cars... per week!

Do you believe he'll hit that target?

If you believe he will, you have to ask yourself if he'll then achieve his next production milestone: 1 million cars per year by 2020.

Feeling a little skeptical?

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I don't blame you.

You can't say Musk isn't trying his damnedest to hit his target; plans are already underway to construct another four Gigafactories in the future.

I don't think you need me to tell you how much lithium Musk the Mighty will need once these factories are up and running.

And that has Buffett outraged.

Greed is Good... for You

There's one thing you and I can count on as these two billionaires are pitted against one another, each trying to monopolize the EV market.

Look, we could talk all day about how the cost efficiencies being made in the battery sector have helped push the lithium revolution to where it's at today.

I could even drone on about how electric vehicles make up a trivial amount of the world's fleet of vehicles.

Truth is, we can count on something much more reliable: greed.

Now, here's the dirty little secret to this story...

Buffett and Musk aren't the only two players on the block.

Everyone is going to jump on this opportunity.

More than a dozen new Gigafactories are being planned as we speak.

Meanwhile, virtually every major automaker has announced its own ambitious plans to transition to an electric fleet of vehicles.

The dirty secret is that even though Elon Musk and Warren Buffett's battle over lithium supply will be waged between BYD and Tesla, we're talking about an all-out brawl among the world's richest investors.

I want to do more than simply tell you about this opportunity.

I want to show you.

Next Tuesday morning, I'll reveal a small trio of companies that will milk these billionaires for all their worth.

Stay tuned.

Until next time,

Keith Kohl

@KeithKohl1 on Twitter

A trueinsider in the energy markets, Keith is one of few financialreporters to have visited the Alberta oil sands. His research has helpedthousands of investors capitalize from the rapidly changing face ofenergy. Keith connects with hundreds of thousands of readers as theManaging Editor of Energy & Capital as well as Investment Director of Angel Publishing's Energy Investor. For years, Keith has been providing in-depth coverage of the Bakken, theHaynesville Shale, and the Marcellus natural gas formations - all ahead of the mainstream media. For more onKeith, go to his editor's page.